soooo... on to a recap of our trip.

aug. 3-4
we flew out on the evening of august 3rd, and actually had a lovely, on-time and smooth flight into heathrow. since steve is really bad at dealing with jetlag, we both attempted to put ourselves into drug-induced sleep. i used ambien, and steve tried sonata. he claims he didn't sleep at all, but i *swear* he was breathing really evenly and seemed really still in his little makeshift tent under the airline blanket.

anyhow, we were still pretty beat once we found our way into london and dropped off our stuff at the hotel, so we didn't do a heck of a lot on august 4. it was my mom's birthday that day, so i thought a lot about her and about our relationship. steve and i wandered around knightsbridge, and spent time browsing around the more ridiculous shops at harrod's. we didn't really look in any of the clothing areas, but spent time exploring the famous looking in the weird boutiques, like the antique map store, and the crazy little boutique in the basement that sells really unusual liquors and decants them into bottles in front of you (sara's booze purchase #1).

even though we downed several starbuck coffees (which, i realized, were probably the first 'dine-in' starbucks coffees i'd consumed in the last 9 months, at least), we were still extremely tired. we decided that we wouldn't be able to stay up much past dinner, so we found a really cool sushi place where we sat at the counter and ate sushi from the selection on their sushi bar conveyor belt. that amused us for quite some time, and then it was back to our hotel, where we slept super soundly.

aug. 5
this was our hard-core london tourist day. we hadn't really planned it as such, and we didn't even really get going until quite late, but we ended up seeing pretty much everything that was on our (mental) to-see lists (no, we didn't really have lists).

i had been to london before, but pretty much only when traveling by myself. i've found that going to all of the touristy things is easiest alone since then you can pace yourself however you want. luckily, we were pretty much up for the same pace of touristy-ness that day. i only got annoyed with steve's tiredness once. :)

we started out slow and by the time we were done with our leisurely first meal (breakfast food for me/lunch for him) we passed by buckingham palace. well, it just so happened that it was only 15 minutes before the 'changing of the guard' so there were tons of tourists waiting around. for some reason there was a big sign that said "the next changing of the guard is at 11:30 tomorrow" we didn't hang around. we walked around in the parks nearby and then noticed a group of guards practicing some sort of event over at the parade grounds. i asked one of the policemen what was going on and he told me that it was not actually a practice, but the pretty boring manner in which they change guards at the nearby buildings. he then instructed me that i shouldn't miss the changing of the guards over at buckingham palace -- which is much more interesting -- and is happening in 10 minutes.

steve and i cursed the inaccurate sign and ran back to the palace. we happened to run right past the gate to the guards' barracks when they were heading out, so we walked alongside the parade for awhile, which was awesome. by the time we got back to the palace, there were too many people lining the route and blocking the gates, so we didn't actually see the changing of the guards. however, i think steve probably preferred watching them march and play their festive patriotic marches more than he would have enjoyed the changing ceremony.

after that, we headed to westminster abbey. i had never been there, and it really impressed us both. steve was so enamored with the ornate carvings and dedications that he spent over 15 minutes right in the entryway reading the first few that we saw. i had to point out to him that there were hundreds, and that if he wanted to read and study them all, it would be all we'd see that day (and we'd be pretty hungry by the end of it!). we then walked through the self-guided tour and saw all of the 'sights', but i think the regular plaques extolling the virtues of various exalted dead were steve's favorites. he loved the tributes, which often stated things like "this is in remembrance of X, a steadfast and noble gentlemen who loved his country above all things and served his majesty with honour and dignity..." (you get the picture).

we spent several hours there, and by the time we were done we were hungry again.

there's not much in that area, so we wandered for awhile, amusing ourselves by constantly repeating "look kids, big ben, parliament!" (from lampoon's european vacation) many, many times. we finally found a pub and had a pretty dang traditional meal of fish-n-chips (me) and shepherd's pie (him). i also realized then that i don't like tetley's beer. ah, well.

the only way we were going to make it to the tower of london in time to see it before closing was if we took the tube, so we played our own little part in 'not letting the terrorists win' and headed east on the district line.

steve has been reading these obscenely large and heavy hardcover books by neal stephenson and a good deal of them is set in london back in the 1700s. he was therefore really psyched by the tower of london, especially since some of his novels' characters spent time there. we did the traditional 'beefeater guard' tour, and then had just enough time to see the crown jewels and run through the torture and arms exhibits before closing. it was really great to see steve enjoying himself so much. :)

we bought ice cream cones and walked across the tower bridge and over to the tate modern, which is one of my favorite places in london.

unfortunately steve doesn't really share my interest in modern art, and our legs were pretty much collapsing at this point, so we only walked through a few galleries before we decided that we needed a bit of a break. we went upstairs to the bar, and had a couple of drinks while watching boats on the thames. it was pretty crowded, so we were only able to score one barstool up against the windows, but it turned out to be a bit of a blessing in disguise. we started talking to the chap next to us, who was supposed to be meeting some family friends who were in from out of town so that he could show them around. he told us about all kinds of fun things we could (and should) do on our next trip, including a crazy through-the-city rollerblade ride that happens monthly (i'll have to train first) and a beautiful horsetrack just outside of town that doesn't have computerized betting systems and instead has bookies with chalkboards (!). we bought us a round and we chatted awhile before he gave up on waiting for his family friends and surrendered his barstool to steve.

after watching the river awhile more, we headed out for dinner. i convinced steve to let us get indian food :) and that was it for the night. we went back to the hotel and passed out.

aug. 6: are you bored of my blog yet?
having seen pretty much all of london, we had no idea what idea what we wanted to do on saturday. we knew that we weren't really interested in being inside very much of the day, since it was beautiful out (and friday had started out quite rainy).

we headed over to the british institute of architects, where we thought we'd see the winning design for a new arctic research station. according to the time out magazine that we had, it was the last weekend of the exhibition. unfortunately the magazine was wrong, because the exhibition had closed the day before, and the new exhibit, which was on low-income housing, wasn't all that exciting. :(

a nearby park was hosting fruitstock, which sounded right up our alley, since it meant smoothies, healthy food and free music. we happened to arrive in the downtime between bands, but we still had a really awesome time people watching and then caught one band's set. they did an awesome cover of the white stripes's "seven nation army" with a female vocalist and an electric fiddle. it made my day!

we didn't do a whole lot else that day. we tried to get standby tickets to see guys and dolls, starring ewan mcgregor (who i have a huge crush on), but we didn't have any luck. we waited in line for about 40 minutes and a few people ahead of us did get in, but we had to comfort ourselves with the fact that we saved a ton of money by not getting tickets. steve also helped further comfort me by buying me indian food for dinner (which was amazing, considering we had it for lunch that day as well).

steve went to bed relatively early, and i wasn't quite ready yet, so i hung out in our semi-posh hotel lobby, drinking gin-n-tonics and reading my fluffy but fun bookclub book.

---

okay, i'm guessing that you're really bored by now. i'm also really interested in going to join steve to watch the news and see how the crazy pull-out in the gaza strip is going, so i'll sign off for now...

xoxo